


Broken Hearts, shades of grief

by LunaLovegood2417



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cancer, F/M, Grief, Grief/Mourning, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Loss, Memories, Mentions of Cancer, dramione - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaLovegood2417/pseuds/LunaLovegood2417
Summary: When Hermione goes up to the attic to clear it out, memories come swarming in
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

A/N  
Draco died three years ago, leaving Hermione a single mother with a ten year old daughter. Three years after, she is going through her memories in the attic and she comes across a box. It was full of love letters to her, even some letters from before they were dating. I really hope you enjoy this, Luna

The attic. Every time she tried to go up into the attic it seemed as if rigor mortis had set in. Memories. That room was full of memories of them.. Boxes and boxes of photos and letters and drawings. Draco had been so full of life and love before he died. How she hated that cancer that took his life. The week he died she magicked everything related to him into the attic, hoping she could block the grief. 

Now she was going in. Three years of ignoring him needed to change. She sucked in a breath and walked up the stairs slowly. As she ascended the stairs she got faster. When she opened the door at the top she sneezed.

The attic was dusty and Hermione noticed the boxes stacked precariously around the room. She knew if she went down she would never come back, so she steeled herself. She picked up one taped up box and cut it open using her keys.

The box had been quite light and when she opened it she saw it was piled high with letters. Tears surfaced afresh when she remembered what they were. They were his love letters to her over the years. She read the topmost one, and her heart broke when she realised it was titled on the day her husband died. It wasn’t written in his beautiful writing, so she thought he may have had to dictate it.

April 21st 2017

My dearest Hermione,  
I love you so incredibly much. I miss you when I am gone, you fill my thoughts and dreams. I wish I could see you again, but that is not to be. I am dying, and I have made my peace with it. I wanted to grow old with you, to see Lyra grow into the strong young woman I know she will be, but this cancer has taken every drop of strength I had left. I can’t wait to reunite with you again when your time comes. I know that you will be the best mother ever to Lyra and loathe as I am to admit it, Potter and Weasley will be good influences on her. Don’t give up, my chapter may have ended, but your life is stretching ahead. I love you Hermione, my little Lioness,  
Draco

She wiped tears from her eyes. Little Lioness had been his first nickname for her. He had had a magical tattoo on his body of a little lioness that ran around. She couldn’t cry now. There were so many more boxes to go through, and she knew this was going to be the toughest day of her life.

The next letter in the pile was a letter from their coworking days before they dated. She furrowed her brow slightly as she read it, not remembering it.

January 20th 2002

Dear Hermione,

I love you, and I always will. I know you won’t read this letter cause I’ll never send it, but it feels good to get my feelings down on paper. You are so beautiful and sweet and kind, but at the same time you are a raging force of nature, uncontrollable and fierce. I know you could never love someone like me but I hope that someday you’ll see me. I love you more than all the grains of sand in the world, I love you to the moon and back and I wish I could tell you.

Love Draco

She smiled a little. These letters were so sweet. That had been the year she fell for him, and fall she did. She fell hard for the man who grew up from a spiteful little boy into a kind considerate man who she missed dearly. She read another one, one from when they had been in fifth year. She had always thought Ron had written this letter, but apparently it had been Draco because the magic had identified this as him.

The letter read - 

October 30th 1996  
Hermione,  
I could not say this to your face for fear of rejection but I love you. I love the color of your eyes, the fiery burning passion that blazes beneath the surface and how you don’t stand down from a fight. I love your hair and how it is like a lion mane in the wind. I love you but I can’t face you.  
Your secret admirer

At the bottom of the box was another box, one labeled Lyra. She was intrigued but she put it on the keep pile. She wouldn’t open it without her daughters permission.

The last letter under the box was the letter Draco had sent her the night before their wedding. She smiled as she read it.

September 8th, 2005  
Hermione,  
I cannot wait to marry you tomorrow, nor can I wait to spend the rest of my life with you. My nerves have been a puddle of goo all week and now I’ve got the jitters. I can hardly bear the thought of being separated from you ever again after this week of preparation. I missed your laugh and your voice and your thoughts. I missed your scent and I missed your smile. I can't wait to see you again,  
Love from your soon to be Husband, Draco

She looked around the attic. She was emotionally spent and she knew now she had started to read these letters again, she would need to come back. She picked up a few letters and the box for Lyra and walked down the stairs.

A/N  
I’m not finished yet, this is just the first chapter. There is too much to be explored, more than letters that they shared. Please review, I really want to know if you liked it, and if you do review a new chapter will come faster, the next chapter is called Photos

Review!


	2. Photos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second visit to the attic

A/N  
This chapter is set about a month after the first. This chapter is called photos. Luna out

Logically she knew she needed to go back up into the attic and deal with the grief that was bogging her down, but she couldn’t. Not for a day, not for a week but only after a month, she felt like she was ready to face the memories again.

She walked back up the stairs into the attic. They creaked in displeasure about being stepped on, but she ignored them. When she got to the top of the stairs she looked around the cramped room. It was a little less cramped then last time considering the boxes she had taken with her, but it was still pretty full.

She picked a random box from the pile and opened it. Inside were pictures. The top pictures were old ones of her and Draco in the Magizooligist office together, of them hiking and camping, one of him falling in the lake and a picture of them all at the snow including Lyra. Then the pictures started to become more depressing. 

Now she looked at the pictures, she realised that even before he had been diagnosed he had started to look haggard. Around that time he had started to get tired quicker. She had teased him about it, saying he was an old man. 

She hadn’t known he wouldn’t get that chance.

She bit her lip in an attempt not to cry as the pictures started moving towards ones of him in hospital and he got thinner and thinner and he lost his hair in all of the later pictures. Even to the last time she saw him he joked about losing his hair. She then saw a picture that made the tears overflow. 

Their last picture together.

He was so thin and bald and pale he could have been Voldemort (except he still had a nose) and his smile was strained. He knew this was it. It shocked her that she could hardly tell he was Draco Malfoy in those last pictures. 

She put that picture on the keep pile unlike all the other hospital pictures. She sorted every picture until there were only a few left in the box.

The first one had been snapped by Professor Mcgonagal at the Yule Ball while she and Draco were dancing. On their wedding day the Headmistress had slipped her the picture with an amused smile on her face. 

It was a picture of them dancing at the yule ball.

They both had equally disgusted expressions on their faces as the magical photo danced and Hermione saw she kept sending looks over at Ron. She smiled fondly as she watched them sniping at each other. She could hear it in her head.

Yule Ball 1994

Hermione was dancing with Viktor Krum once again, but to her utter annoyance, the next person she was due to dance with was Draco Malfoy.

“Ferret.”

She addressed him shortly, not in the mood to fight. He smirked.

“Beaver. What brings you here? Tired of your muddy life?”

She would have slapped him, but alas she was onto the next person. When she rotated back to him, she had a stinging reply ready.

“Nope. I, unlike you, dressed myself. How on earth did you sneak your mother into Hogwarts?”

He scowled at her and now it was her turn to smirk triumphantly. He stepped on her foot as she twirled onto the next person.

Hermione put the photo on the keep pile. Three photos were left unsorted. She picked one up and snickered. It was one from Christmas. Lyra had taken this photo of Hermione chasing Draco around the room trying to put a Weasley Christmas sweater on him. Draco’s expression was a mix between agony and fear.

Christmas 2014  
It was their seventh Christmas as a family of three and the annual Weasley sweater package had arrived. 

This year, Lyra’s sweater had a big golden L on it on a green background. Hermione's was a white sweater with a red H knitted on it, and Draco’s sweater had a silver D on a black background. 

Hermione had her sweater on as did Lyra, and currently Hermione was chasing Draco, trying to put his on him.

“Noooooooooo don’t make me!”

He screeched jumping over the couch. Hermione tried to tackle him and missed. The Christmas tree teetered precariously. Hermione grinned at him and kicked the Christmas tree over, knowing he wouldn’t be able to leave it. Draco struggled whether to run or fix the tree. 

He decided to fix the tree. It was his downfall, and Hermione quickly shoved the sweater over his head. He struggled but she was victorious.

She tenderly put the photo down onto the keep pile. Lyra would want to see those memories. The next photo was of Draco holding Lyra for the first time. Her heart clenched at the tender look on his face, one of intense love but also of fear. He had later confided in her that he was scared he would break her.

January sixth 2007  
Draco gingerly took the tiny girl into his arms. She looked so tiny in his arms as she slept peacefully. His smile was wider than any Hermione had ever seen before. He was rocking back and forth with her, and quietly crooning to her.

Hermione was so tired, but sacrificing sleep was worth it to watch this beautiful scene folding out before her. Draco came and sat next to her bed and passed their little girl onto her chest. 

“Lyra.”

He whispered and Hermione nodded in agreement. She put in her two cents.

“What about Lyra Narcissa Granger-Malfoy?”

He laughed.

“Poor kiddo for every form she has to sign.”

A laugh was startled out of her. He gently wrapped his arms around the both of them, being careful not to crush Lyra. 

Hermione firmly placed that on the keep pile. The last photo made her breath catch in her throat. Their wedding day. It was of her and Draco kissing with Luna, Ginny and Pansy standing next to her and Harry, Theo and Blaise standing on Draco’s other side. They were all laughing except for Draco and Hermione. Ginny, Luna and Pansy threw their bouquets at the camera. 

September 9th 2005  
She leant forwards to kiss Draco and Luna, Ginny, Pansy, Harry, Theo and Blaise cheered. She broke away from him and everyone moved into a group hug. Finally she was married to the man of her dreams after so many years of dancing around their feelings. 

Hermione pulled out of the memory before she cried. Her and Ginny weren’t friends anymore ever since Draco’s death. They had fought and Hermione said stuff she would never have said if she wasn’t grief filled. Harry had sided with Ginny and she hadn’t seen either of them since. She hadn’t seen Ron for the same reason. 

Luna was often around since she was Lyra’s Godmother and Theo frequented the house for the same reason. Pansy and her were pretty tight ever since the incident with Ginny and she hadn’t seen Blaise since the funeral. She tore the picture up into pieces then repaired it with magic. She put it on the keep pile and picked up the pile of keep. She incinerated the pile of throw out pictures and went out of the attic, weighed down with sadness but oddly feeling freer than before.

A/NI hope you enjoyed pictures, just so you know I’m planning on maybe three more chapters with the next one being drawings. I’ll post the next chapter on Monday or thereabouts


End file.
